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1) “What is the root problem we face?” June
26
What are the causes of the problems and trends we are seeing or experiencing?
Are these problems different from those of 25 years ago, 50 years ago?
What are sweatshop conditions? What is the sweatshop system? Is there
a way to escape this sweatshop system?
2. “What are we fighting for?” July 10
Are we fighting for fair representation, equality, justice, freedom or
something else? What does it mean to fight for the right to a 40-hour
workweek at a living wage? How is this different from the issues raised
in Congress about overtime pay and the perspective promoted by groups
like Take Back Your Time which call for individual control of one’s
time and a cap on overtime? What is the relationship between our personal
struggles with work, school, family, housing, etc., and our collective
struggle to change things?
3. “Organizing Immigrants” July 17
Shirley Lung, Professor at CUNY Law School, former director of the Center
for Immigrants’ Rights
How do “immigrants rights” reforms and organizations often contribute
to the oppression and super-exploitation of immigrants? What can we learn
from domestic campaigns such as amnesty, and from projects abroad (in
countries like China, where more than 100 million people have migrated
to the cities looking for jobs)?
4. “Organizing Versus Advocacy” July 31
Ken Kimerling, from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
What is the difference between advocating and organizing? What does it
mean to provide leadership in organizing workers?
5. “The Decline of the Trade Union Movement”
August 7
Robert Fitch, author of The Assassination of New York, journalist and
teacher.
After reviewing the history of the trade union movement, we will ask why
are unions in decline today?
6. “The New Labor Movement” August 21
What will it look like as more of us organize together, not as employees,
but as working people of all kinds to fight for control of our working
conditions, our health, our communities and our time? What relationship
would this new labor movement have to other social and political movements?
How would it relate to electoral politics?
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